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Business critical services

IST offers a variety of IT services to the University of Waterloo community. A key subset of these are deemed core IT services:

BES

DHCP

DNS

Exchange

External Network

Lync

​Mailservices

MS SQL Cluster

NEXUS

Office 365

Netapp storage

Physical Security systems

Sharepoint

Telephones

VMware cluster

WCMS

Wired Network

Wireless

VPN

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Core IT services are primarily managed by the Technology Integrated Services group in IST, and are generally offered on a 7x24 basis with 99.9% or better availability (measured monthly).

For planned maintenance to core services, IST will provide the following notice:

Between 22:00 – 08:00 weekdays, and anytime on weekends, statutory and University holidays, with:

At least 24 hours notice for maintenance window < 5 minutes

At least 48 hours notice for maintenance window 5 minutes to 1 hour

At least 7 days notice for maintenance window 1 to 2 hours

At least 14 days notice for maintenance window 2 to 6 hours

At least 30 days notice for maintenance window 6 to 12 hours

At other mutually agreed times if maintenance activities are requested by a department, and impact is limited to that department.

All other times with approval of CIO

IST's response times for service outages or degradation is immediate during business hours, with a target resolution time of less than 4 hours. Outside of business hours, IST's response time is 1 hour, with a target resolution time of 12 hours (this includes the replacement of physical components, and the identification and resolution of software-based issues).

The Request Tracker (RT) system is used to report problems to, or request services from, various groups within IST, and some other departments/faculties.